They Don’t Impress ‘Em Much

How many times have you heard that President Bush’s approval ratings are low? Guess what: the Democratic Congress’s approval rating is lower.
For some reason, this hasn’t been getting much press. But the low esteem in which voters held Congress prior to November’s election barely changed after the Democrats took power in January. Today, Gallup notes that the modest bounce Congress experienced in January and February is now gone:

The modest uptick in approval of the job being done by Congress has dissipated for the most part after only two months.
According to Gallup’s monthly update on job approval of Congress — in a March 11-14, 2007, national poll — 28% of Americans approve of the job being done by Congress and 64% disapprove.

This graphic shows Gallup’s trend pretty clearly:
Gallup is not alone. Check out all of the polls, collected at Real Clear Politics. The polls consistently show that Congress never got more than a slight bounce when it changed hands in January, and its ratings now are pretty much where they were when the Republicans were in control before the election.
I attribute this to the fact that the Democrats have no positive agenda. They patently have no interest in doing the people’s business, and, similarly, show no interest in appealing to any element of the electorate other than the hard-core haters who form their base.
If they keep this up, a 28% approval rating will be looking good by this time next year.
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